Coming out the Labor Day weekend, we are diving into a wide variety of topics this week. From SMB tech trends to female empowerment to the first-ever Sales Development Conference we are attending this month, there is a lot to be excited about as we head into the fall. Read below to get this week’s edition of What’s Trending in B2B:

1. Small Business Using Big Tech

Tech is about to create a much more even playing field for small business in the near future, according to a recent MediaPost article. The author references G2Crowd’s third quarterly research report, and the results were pretty eye-opening. Here are a few stats that rose to the top:

77% of small businesses in the U.S. were planning to invest in growth

51% also said that outsourcing is part of their business plan

47% of high-growth SMBs plan to increase IT spending this year

What does this all mean? Small businesses are seeing the value of tech-based outsourcing as an effective tool for growing revenue, proving that the status quo for this market is shifting as tech stacks grow more and more sophisticated.

2. What Do B2B Sales Pros Really Think About AI?

In movies, AI usually looks like a robot army coming for our jobs. For most of us though, AI is really a form of assistance, like Siri, Alexa and chatbots. AI has become an undeniable part of everyone’s lives, including in the business world. This is exactly why Sales Hacker recently pondered, “What Do B2B Sales Pros Really Think About AI?”

Referencing a Cien Global Study on the Future of Sales, data shows the relationship between AI and B2B sales is already off to a good start. In fact, the vast majority of B2B sales professionals involved in the study, 88 percent, believe that AI will make their jobs easier. Salesforce users were also more confident about the use of AI in the future compared to salespeople who didn’t use Salesforce, and the confidence in AI was found with both sales leaders as well as sales reps. Overall, it seems that many people in B2B sales are starting to see the true value in AI for productivity and time-saving, rather than a technology that’s taking over their career.

3. Why Video Marketing is Booming

When’s the last time you’ve scrolled through Twitter or opened up a blog post and didn’t see a video? It probably hasn’t happened much in the past year, and there is a reason for that: Video marketing is booming. Here are some incredible stats provided by Forbes that should give you an idea of just how powerful the medium has become:

Video is interactive and it allows you to absorb info quickly, so it’s no wonder that sales and marketing teams are using it more and more as part of their strategy. Clearly, your marketing team should be looking to video in the near future (if you haven’t already) in order to keep up – based on these stats, it’s a resource worth investing in.

4. Four Reasons Women Rock at Account-Based Selling

In a recent No More Cold Calling post, author Joanne Black discusses why women make great sales leaders and excel in account-based selling. She also highlighted a recent study showing that women in sales have great strengths in quota attainment and leadership effectiveness.

Joanne walks through several reasons why people have told her that women make great salespeople: they earn the trust and respect of clients quickly, they are intuitive and don’t second-guess their feelings, and they see the larger picture around sales and “peel the onion” to solve core problems. To get some inspiration, read more of Joanne’s blog to see how women can further their careers in sales.

5. Join Us at #SalesDev17

On September 21, 2017, at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, EverString will be attending the first-ever Sales Development Conference hosted by Tenbound. We are really excited to be a Silver Sponsor of this one-of-a-kind event, especially since EverString delivers key benefits to sales development.

#SalesDev17 is the first conference of its kind to focus solely on the ins and outs of sales dev. During the event, VPs, directors and managers will be discussing everything from data use to video to managing sales teams. EverString’s VP of Sales Development, Matt Amundson, will also be taking part in a panel discussion moderated by the Bridge Group – you’ll definitely want to get his fresh and candid take on building a sales team while you’re there.

Tenbound will also be handing out the Beast Awards, which are awarded to the best and brightest in sales dev. See our Beast Award predictions by reading our latest blog post!

That’s it for this week’s news roundup – tune in next week to see what’s happening in the world of B2B sales and marketing!